North America

New research showcases benefits of crowdfunding for entrepreneurs

New research from Capital Crowdfund Advisors showed that entrepreneurs who crowdfunded did very well, getting an increase in sales, among others, Forbes Contributor Cheryl Conner reported.


Canada's Waterloo region sees massive rise in venture capital funds- report

Canada's Waterloo region posted a substantial rise in venture capital funds, with the creation of Open Text Applications Venture Fund and the Northleaf Venture Catalyst Fund, TheRecord.com reported.

More deals but less venture capital funding went to smart grid technology firms in 2013- report

Research from Mercom Capital Group showed that venture capital funding for companies in the smart grid technology sector was pegged at $405 million in 2013, a dip from the $434 million in 2012.

US-based car buying service CarWoo! closes down

Burlingame, California-based car buying service CarWoo! posted an announcement on its website saying the company will be shutting down, with some of its employees heading to rival TrueCar.


Latest News

While venture capital funding for healthcare influenced by information technology or HIT is more pronounced in the US, venture capitalists are also showing interest in the niche in India, The Hindu Business Line reported.
Sears Holdings Corp will be halting the operations of its flagship store in Chicago in April in a bid to bring down the number of its outlets and rely more on online retail, Reuters reported.
The users of Twitter in the US are more racially diverse compared to those of other Internet sites and Twitter is capitalizing on its demographics to get revenues, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Shape Security, a Mountain View, California-based secretive cybersecurity startup founded by former Pentagon employees, wants to slow down hackers using software that scrambles website codes.
Amazon is thinking of launching an online pay-TV service and has already approached various media companies about obtaining a license to distribute their TV channels, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal citing sources.
Internet giant Yahoo acquired Seattle, Washington-based mobile marketing startup Sparq for an undisclosed amount to start monetizing its mobile user base and drive revenue growth.
With the goal of building a pet dish that is linked to the internet, Los Angeles-based startup Petnet was able to get seed round funding of $1.12 million, Gigaom reported.
Nexmo, the company that provides messaging and voice capabilities to app developers and enterprises globally, was able to secure $18 million for its Series C funding round.
San Francisco, California-based firm HiddenRadio launched another crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to add new features to HiddenRadio 2, its second model of impressively-designed $119 Bluetooth speaker.
JPMorgan Chase & Co has stopped working on the planned initial public offering of Chinese firm Tianhe Chemicals as US regulators continue its probe of the bank's hiring practices in China, Reuters reported.